


We can make it if we try

by goodforthegarbage



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Bitterness, Destroyed Friendship, Friends to Enemies, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Set in 2023, a lot of thoughts, this was highly inspired by brocedes but they are not team mates here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29226339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodforthegarbage/pseuds/goodforthegarbage
Summary: “George Russell, you are the 2023 Formula One World Champion, congratulations!” George didn’t even listen to what Bono said afterwards, all he could concentrate on were these two words. World Champion.or:One point. George had one more point than him now, which secured him the championship.
Relationships: Alexander Albon & George Russell
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	We can make it if we try

**Author's Note:**

> i've had a dream about this and turned it into a fic. please excuse possible grammar/spelling and logic mistakes, enjoy!

_George pov:_

“George Russell, you are the 2023 Formula One World Champion, congratulations!” George didn’t even listen to what Bono said afterwards, all he could concentrate on were these two words. World Champion. George couldn’t believe he had really done it. He felt tears streaming down his face. Were it tears of joy? Tears of exhaustion? It was so surreal and as he tried wiping those tears away through his helmet, George recognized Pierre who was driving alongside him now and who gave him a thumbs up. He waved back at his team mate and focused on his driving again.

George heard another voice with a German accent on his radio. Toto. “Congratulations, George. With you and Pierre finishing first and second, we also managed to get the constructor’s title in this last race, thank you! What an amazing season!” George smiled to himself. The constructor’s title seemed to be out of reach ever since Pierre was haunted by a ton of bad luck at the beginning of the season. But as he himself had a rather smooth season, he was glad Pierre could fight back and they both managed to score some good points towards the end of the season. Pierre and him made up a good team. The two of them got along really well, shared the same sense of humour and were able to push each other to the limits in every race. As long as the luck was on their side and they weren’t pursued by engine failures or screwed up pit stops they both had a really good season driving wise.

When George got out of the car under the podium Pierre was the first one to come up to him and congratulate him. “Next year is my turn”, he said with a laugh and George smiled at him. He would love to fight for the championship with Pierre. This could be a lot of fun. After Pierre it was Lando, who finished third in the race, who came up to him. “Actually I wanted to become the next Lewis and be the next Brit to win the championship”, he grinned at George. “But you deserve it as well, amazingly driven throughout the whole season, cheers mate!” George thanked him and he was happy they were able to joke like this. Lando’s McLaren hasn’t been a championship winning car this season but it was always good to share the podium with his fellow country man.

Out of the corner of his eye George saw the two Alpine cars being parked in parc fermé. Bono told him they finished only sixth and eighth which enabled Mercedes to overtake them in the standings in the last race of the season and secure the world contructor’s championship. He saw Alex climbing out of his car and he couldn’t help but to grin. Alex has been his championship rival throughout the season and to be fair, the Alpine car was maybe the faster one if you look at the whole season, but George and his team did it, they deserve it. Even though Alex was a few meters away from him he could see how angry he was. And George understood Alex. If he had lost a championship like this he wouldn’t have wanted to see anyone. But right now he couldn’t bd bothered. He didn’t care about Alex’s feelings, he just felt happiness in every single part of his body.

He stood silent for a split second and tried to wrap his head around what happened today. But before George could get lost in his thoughts completely, he heard his mechanics chanting his name. He turned around to see all these faces full of joy and pride and ran towards them. He had the best team in the world, every single member meant so much to him and he was more than glad to share this moment with them. After George was sure he had hugged everyone accordingly he was reminded that he had to get ready for the podium.

Just as any racing driver probably, he loved standing on the top step of the podium. He listened to first the British and then the German anthem being played for him and for the team respectively. As soon as they were given the trophies, George looked down to his team and was just proud. Proud to be a part of this team, proud of everyone’s individual work and proud to execute this to be the 2023 world champions now. He closed his eyes, capturing this moment as one of the best of his life in the back of his head. The next thing he felt was wetness. Pierre and Lando had both opened their bottles and directed them towards him. And although rose water didn’t spray - and taste - even half as good as champagne, it fulfilled its duties. George felt sticky from head to toe but he would never complain. He returned the favour to Pierre and Lando and smiled broadly.

They weren’t many people he’d prefer to stand on the podium with. Probably no one, to be honest. Maybe except one, but that time was long gone. He stood on the podium together with Alex a couple of times last season and also during their junior days. It had always been a lot of fun but this season changed everything. They already talked very little to each other at the beginning of the season but this had changed to nothing at this point. Alex and George were avoiding each other as best as possible at this point and although it was sad to see their friendship falling apart like this, maybe it was for the better.

He was just thinking whether their relationship could be getting healthier and something close to normal again, he felt someone tapping him on his shoulder and found himself looking into Pierre’s eyes. “Do you want to sit here forever, mate? You got two championships to celebrate!” And with that he was up to his feet again, not even knowing when he sat down in the first place. George was leaving the podium together with his team mate and they shared a few laughs. Thinking about Alex wasn’t even what he should be doing at that moment. Alex didn’t matter, but his team mate and their shared achievements do.

Right when he promised himself to not think about his ex best friend anymore George catched Alex looking at him in the media pen and something changed. He could tell by himself that Alex was sad of course but he didn’t expect it to happen to hit him like this. His rival’s eyes were full of hate and anger for him and it hurt. He would never admit it to anyone but Alex looking at him absolutely disgusted made him rage but at the same time sad. It wasn’t him but Alex who stopped to care about their friendship more and more over the last months and years.

Ever since Alex joined Alpine he was spending less and less time with George and he understood. He has never had an easy time when he was with Red Bull but it became even worse when he didn’t have a seat in 2021. But they never lost contact, they analyzed George’s F1 races and George even started to watch DTM religiously just to see what his best friend was doing. Then Alex got a contract offered by Alpine for the 2022 season and nothing was the same anymore. Alex started to work hard for his comeback and spent any free second with training and George loved to see his enthusiasm and Alex’s fierce desire to come back. But their interactions got less and less last season. Sure, Alpine was better than expected last season and could challenge for the victory on a regular basis. At the same time George was at Mercedes, his first season at a top team and Alex and him had a few battles over the course of the last season. Nothing dramatic, just a few banging wheels and light touches. But it changed their relationship.

They couldn’t talk to each other with ease anymore and ever since they were both real title contenders for this season it was complete radio silence between them. No more after race debates and analyses, no more golfing or cycling between two races, no more playing stupid online games. George would have lied if he had said he didn’t miss spending time with Alex. But he accepted that Alex had distanced himself from him but what hurt George the most was some quotes coming from the Alpine team, which said that he and Alex weren’t friends anymore throughout the whole championship rivals story made its way to the media. Although the quote didn’t come directly from Alex himself but from his team, George’s heart was broken. Alex had been his best friend and them being championship rivals seemed to have hurt their relationship fundamentally. George needed a few days to get over this but it made him focus on his main goal - winning the championship - even more. If Alex didn’t want to be his friend anymore - fine, he had nothing to pay respect to on the track anymore. He had no problem seeing Alex having bad luck in a race, crashing or having a bad strategy. Alex was just one of his rivals, just as all the other 18 drivers on the grid and that was exactly how he was going to treat Alex.

Realizing he got lost in his thoughts about Alex again George came back to reality. He continued with his media duties and got back to his team eventually, with Bono being the first to hug him tightly. George also met all the others who couldn’t stand under the podium and someone handed him a glass of champagne. Toto drew the attention on him by cautiously putting his glass and a screwdriver together and spoke up: “I want to raise a toast to everyone of you here now. We’ve made it back to the top by taking both, the double out of constructors’ and driver’s title, and I’m very proud to be standing here now as the team principal. A big thank you to all the engineers, the mechanics, the press team, the drivers and everyone else. We’ve achieved this as a team and we deserve it. But I’m not gonna bore you too much with a long speech, we’re gonna go into a quick debrief now and as soon as we’re all done here, you all are better going to get back to the hotel as fast as you can and get ready for some big celebrations tonight!” The answer was loud laughter and cheering by everyone assembled in the Mercedes garage. George enjoyed being surrounded by these people and frankly - we couldn’t wait for the party to start.

As soon as he had finished the last debrief of the season and the engineers were done packing up, the whole team got back to the hotel. George decided to take the elevator to his room on the fifth floor as he wanted to save as much energy as possible for the upcoming party. When the elevator finally stopped on the right floor, the door opened and George stepped out. A very familiar dark haired figure just came from the stairway.

If he had finished fifth or higher, Alex would have been the world champion now. But he made contact with Charles. A racing incident, which made him drop back to the very end of the grid. He tried his best fighting all the way up again, but since George was in the lead he had to make up a lot of places if he still wanted to win that championship. The fact that Abu Dhabi was a horrible track to overtake didn’t make his mission in any way easier. He was stuck behind Lance for an eternity and after all a sixth place just wasn’t enough to win the championship.

~~~

_Alex pov:_

One point. George had one more point than him now, which secured him the championship. Oh, how much he had hoped George’s engine would blow up, just like Pierre’s did so many times during the season. If the Mercedes drivers just had their fair share on engine blow ups, Alex would be the 2024 world champion now. It was not the first time Alex caught himself having thoughts like these. And if he was honest to himself, he was quite surprised by his bitterness.

George had been his friend, no his best friend, since almost 15 years now. They had always dreamt of fighting for championships against each other. And this year wasn’t the first year they were racing each other for the big trophies. Whether in karting or in Formula 2, it has always been a lot of fun. When he had lost against George it had been no problem for him, since he wanted his best friend to do well almost as much as he wanted himself to succeed. But this year was different. They were in the highest category they could ever be in and it was more intense than ever before. In his first stint in F1 he used to evaluate his races with George after every weekend. It was no problem when the two of them were racing for Toro Rosso and Williams respectively. They weren’t in the spotlight, they were just doing what they loved most - racing. And living your dream with your best friend is something many people could only wish for.

It was amazing until they were both in championship winning cars. The media, the spectators kept an eye on them and everything they did. They were already fighting at the very top last season and the talks have already started. “Childhood friends turning rivals” “Can a friendship exist in such a high performance lifestyle?” and “The new Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg” were only a few of the headlines Alex has read in the different boulevard magazines. George and he used to watch the F1 races together in the mid 2010s and they swore each other - if they made it to the pinnacle of motor racing - they wouldn’t end like this. Under no circumstances. They knew about Lewis and Nico’s story: growing up karting together, becoming friends and eventually ending up in F1 together. And he couldn't deny the parallels between their relationship and his and George's relationship but they wanted to write a different story. He didn't want this sport to destroy one of the most important human relationships he had in his life. He wanted to be happy about George's achievements and not be bitter about himself not being the one to succeed. Of course, it's okay to be disappointed if things don't work out your way.

He was never satisfied when he didn't win but in the past it was okay when George was the one to beat him but now it's different. He'd prefer finishing 19th in front of George instead of finishing second behind him. He couldn't stand seeing what he had to see now: George standing on top of his car and then running over to the Mercedes crew to celebrate with them. It should be him doing this now and Alex had to bite his lip to not start screaming uncontrollably.

He quickly got out of his car, ignored all the people and voices around him and tried to make his way back to the garage without being noticed by anyone. He exchanged a few words with his race engineer and then went on to go into his driver's room and locked the door. He didn't want to see anyone now and sat down on the floor opposite of the door, his long legs stretched out to the floor and his hands covering his eyes.He started crying. He hated George, hated the fact he was world champion and not him, hated Charles for making contact with him, hated Lance for being in his way but first and foremost he hated himself. Hated how the situation had developed as it did. Hated how he made a few avoidable mistakes at the beginning of the season which now cost him the championship. Hated how his old best friend was a world champion now and not himself.

Drowning in his thoughts, Alex didn't notice how the room to his driver's room was opened and he was told he had to fulfill his media duties now. He didn't want to answer any of the questions, he didn't want to be reminded he was so close to being a world champion. He just wanted to be left alone. When he arrived at the media pen he already saw George being interviewed and beaming over his whole face and his first instinct was to yell at him, to stop with his stupid smile. The second thought was to just turn around and don't speak to the media at all. But his press assistant seemed to notice and held Alex in place to make sure he didn't run away. He had to give the interviews and he actually felt sorry for the people interviewing him because he was only giving three word answers. But on the other hand, they had to know he was pissed and mad and didn't really want to talk about losing the championship by one point. One point. The more he thought about it the more it hurt that he was beaten by such a small margin.

From afar he heard George's voice and as much as he tried to ignore that voice he still listened. George was talking about how amazing crossing the finish line had felt and Alex realized he was yet to talk to him. But honestly what should he say? ‘Hey you won the championship that should've been mine.’ or 'If stuff went normal, you know I would be the champion now’? Alex didn't want to see the stupid self confident and arrogant smile of the other one and decided to only glare at him with dark, mad eyes. Then suddenly, George seemed to notice him and locked eyes. Something changed. George wasn't smiling and beaming anymore. He had a different look in his eyes. Alex couldn't be sure about what he saw in those, but was it pity? Sadness? Sympathy for him? Whatever it was, Alex didn't want to see it and turned around to finish his last interview and since most of the reporters luckily seemed to realize Alex wasn't quite in the mood to talk and didn't make him suffer with more questions.

On his way back to the Alpine garage he took out his phone and read some of the messages he's been sent. His mum, his dad, his siblings, some friends and old rivals sent him messages. Many encouraging words and congratulations on an amazing season nonetheless. 'Amazing season. Of course', the irony hit Alex right in the face and he just wanted to punch something. Second was the first loser and no one should tell him otherwise. He knew he had fucked up. He maybe could have avoided the contact in the first lap and instead just given up the third place to Charles. He would've been world champion now. Could have, would have, whatever.

The reality was he had to enter debrief with so many sad and disappointed faces now and he didn't know what to say. It was all his fault they didn't have anything to celebrate now and he felt bad. He tried to ignore all of the team members and although they all wanted to cheer him up, Alex only looked down to the floor. He couldn’t stand looking into all these sad faces. They deserved so much more and although they didn’t tell him it has his fault he knew what they were thinking and he couldn’t blame them. He could’ve been the team’s first champion in almost 20 years. It would’ve been such a huge achievement for everyone because no one ever had the joy to celebrate a world championship. He was happy when the debrief was finally over and he could leave for the hotel room.

He sat down in a car next to his trainer, nobody of them saying a word. Alex took out his phone again to check instagram. The first thing he saw was George smiling like an idiot, holding his trophy for the first place right into the camera. Of course George had already posted something. He read the caption: “World Champion! Thank you to everyone who made this incredible achievement possible.” ‘Oh, you’re welcome’, Alex thought bitterly. Because in the end it was him who made this last step possible. He didn’t know why exactly he did it, but Alex started to scroll through the comments and the same people who had sent him encouraging messages were commenting under George’s picture now.

“Fucking traitors” Alex mumbled, fully knowing these people were also George’s friends and put his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. “What did you say?”, Patrick asked him. Alex didn’t bother to turn his face to look at his trainer and stared out of the window. “Oh, it’s nothing.” Patrick tried again: “Alex, I know you’re upset but if you want or need to you can always talk to me about anything, I hope you know that.” Alex sighed still looking out of the window and tracing the raindrops falling down on the window with his fingertips. He didn’t know when nature decided to make rain in Abu Dhabi possible suddenly but it definitely was matching his mood. “What do you want me to say? I fucked up, I didn’t make it and out of all people it was George who won the championship and I-”, he finally answered Patrick but he had to stop because tears were starting to form in his eyes again. Why was he crying again? He wasn’t a little baby anymore.

“Hey mate, it’s okay to be disappointed. I know you wanted to win but you drove your heart out there not only today but over the course of the whole season. You couldn’t have done more, we’re attacking next year again”, Patrick reached out, gently put his hand on Alex’s shoulder and squeezed it a little bit. Alex let out a long breath, he didn’t realize he was holding it for so long. He relaxed and pushed himself into the seat deeper and closed his eyes. “You’re right”, he said quietly. “But I was so close, if it wasn’t about the contact with Charles I would be world champion now.” “I can imagine it is hard to accept but the sport doesn’t allow any ‘ifs’. It just wasn’t meant to be this year. You’ve fought back so many times in your career and you will do so this time as well. I believe in you, we all believe in you. It’s okay to be sad now but we’ll make sure you’re even better prepared for next season very soon, okay?” “Yeah, thank you Patrick. For everything, I couldn’t do it without you.” Alex turned to Patrick for the first time during their conversation and gave Patrick a genuine smile.

“So what are we doing tonight, mate? Playing some games, emptying some bottles of beer?” “I don’t know”, Alex was insecure and bit down on his bottom lip, “I think I’d like to be alone and maybe call my family or stuff, if this is okay for you.” He made it sound more like a question and he was relieved when he heard Patrick laughing quietly. “Of course it is, do whatever makes you feel best.” They had arrived at the hotel now. Alex and Patrick were saying their goodbyes and parting ways to head to their respective hotel rooms. Alex ran up the stairway and when he saw who came out of the elevator, he just wanted to turn around and ran the opposite way again.

~~~

George and Alex were standing opposite of each other in the hotel corridor now and neither of them really knew what to do or say. They were just glaring at each other just like they did a few hours earlier in the media pen. Right when George decided to just leave for his hotel room without any further talks he heard a sound coming out of Alex’s mouth. “Were you talking to me?” he asked and turned around, raising one eyebrow. “Yeah, I was… I… congrats on the title, you deserve it, I guess”, Alex responded quietly. He didn’t know why he was so insecure and trying so hard to avoid George’s gaze by looking down to the carpet on the floor right in front of him. He couldn’t stand the beaming happiness radiating from the other one’s face.

George snorted. “Oh so kind, Mr Albon. Didn’t know you were even talking to me at this point.” As he finished his sentence, George immediately regretted his choice of words and was biting on the inside of his cheek. He didn’t want to sound so harsh but he couldn’t bring himself to apologize. Running a hand through his hair, George looked to Alex, who had taken his eyes off the floor by now and was directly staring at George’s face. “Oh, come on, George'', Alex started slightly annoyed but George interrupted him. “What ‘come on George’? You’ve been avoiding me for the past year straight and now you think that with one sentence everything’s alright again? No, Alex, it’s not as easy as that.” George was more yelling at this point and he couldn’t care less about all these other people in the hotel who could possibly hear them arguing here.

George didn’t know himself why he was throwing these words at Alex now, but it probably built up in him over the last months. And when he recognized Alex was dropping down his shoulders, giving up his straight position, he already felt sorry. His best friend, no his ex best friend, had lost the world championship title today and he probably didn’t need George to confront him with his feelings now.

Alex took a step back and raised his arms. “All I wanted to do is congratulating you on the championship, nothing more and nothing less, calm down”, he snapped back, sounding more aggressive than intended. “If it wasn’t about me making contact with Charles you would’ve never won it in the first place anyway”, he added under his breath. Alex didn’t give it a second thought and just hoped George didn’t hear it properly but by the way George’s face darkened Alex knew he understood every single word. “Seriously? Do you want me to say ‘thank you Alex for not finishing high enough’ now? Honestly leave me alone, I know you’re good at that now!” George’s voice has gotten louder again and it was more screaming in the end.

A small part of George felt sorry for going at Alex like this now but the bigger part told him that this was exactly the right thing to do now. He had never told Alex about his feelings towards this whole situation and they seemed to have bottled up inside him and he had to let them out. In fact, he shouldn’t be caring about Alex right now. This day was about him and not about the guy who didn’t want to be his friend anymore but it stung in his heart. Alex acting like nothing happened hurt. Alex was annoyed. He didn’t know why George was acting like this now. He had just won the championship, he really had nothing to complain about.

“What is your problem?”, he brought out, sounding very desperate. “What my problem is? You. And how you’re pretending to be happy for me when we both know you’re not. We promised each other to do this together. Years ago, on the karting track, do you remember? ‘Us against the rest of the world’, these were your words. You were afraid we’d be ending up like Lewis and Nico and I promised you we won’t, because I was sure nothing could ever destroy a bond like the one we have - oh sorry, had”, George put emphasis on the ‘had’ and paused smiling bitterly, tears were building up in his eyes. “But then it didn’t take much: only you and your goddamn Alpine contract and everything was over. It was you who stopped caring. I seem to have been good enough when I’m just minding my business at the back of the grid and for the therapy sessions when your race has been bad. But as soon as we got in an equal car you don’t want to see me anymore. I thought our friendship was more important to you, I really did.”

Alex swallowed heavily, he wasn’t prepared for an outburst of George’s emotions like that. “You know that’s not true”, Alex mumbled and George was shamelessly crying now. “How should I? If I may remind you, it was your team saying publicly we’re not friends anymore and frankly I would’ve liked it if you told me yourself. But honestly it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I’m going to get ready because I have something to celebrate tonight.” With that he wiped his tears away and turned around to go to his hotel room. But Alex was faster and put a hand on George’s shoulder.

“Please wait, George”, Alex said quietly and started to cry himself. George turned his head around and realized the absurdity of the situation. He was standing there with his best friend, both crying because they were facing the leftovers of their broken friendship now. George couldn’t help but let out a quiet giggle. “What’s up?”, Alex asked puzzled. “It’s just… Don’t you think it’s weird? Us standing here now, crying in a hotel corridor?”, George answered and smiled slightly. “It probably is. But George, I don’t want to lose you like this. I know, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ve disappointed you. I was just so focused on doing it better this time and I lost track of other things and people that are important to me. I can only apologise for everything I’ve said and done, George. But you have to believe me: the statements about us not being friends anymore were made by my team without me knowing anything about it. I was pretty shocked when I read them as well and honestly I hoped you wouldn’t get to see them. You still mean a lot to me George and if it isn’t too late, I hope we can somehow fix this.”

During his monologue Alex’s voice got quieter and he was looking down on the floor again. His arms were crossed on his back. George didn’t know how to respond to Alex’s confession and so the pair fell into an uncomfortable silence for some seconds. “Alex, I don’t think I can just forget everything that happened, it’s been a lot. But I won’t say things won’t ever get better again. Let me just have a little distance from everything in the winter break. There’s been a lot for my brain to process, not only concerning you and I desperately need some rest.”

Alex was relieved and smiled at George shyly. “Thank you, George, really. Do you think we could make it again?” George looked back at him. He was clearly exhausted but Alex was sure he could see a small grin on the other one's face. “If we try hard enough, then maybe we can. I'm sorry, but now I really have to get ready.” “Have a good night! And congrats again, you deserve it more than anyone!”, Alex was sincere and with that George left the corridor, feeling a lot better now that some things were cleared out. Their relationship might never be the same again but he was confident it could become a lot better than what it was like this season.

**Author's Note:**

> there might be a chance i'll write a part two in the future, so please let [me](http://wildvesti.tumblr.com/) know what you think :)


End file.
